Tag: New Theatre

In Shakespeare’s time, actors normally had 48 to rehearse a play which would no doubt have given it a raw energy and fearlessness that is sometimes lacking in modern productions.

It’s something that many performers may be reluctant to try but in a new interpretation of The Comedy of Errors, members of Nottingham University’s New Theatre and Fine Frenzy Theatre have created a pared down performance which captures the ‘anything could happen’ element that would have been familiar in Shakespeare’s day.

As we enter the theatre, we are greeted by the narrator, Ben Williamson, who is dressed as a baby (in a onesie) in a nursery full of toys – not very Shakesperean I hear you say. He explains that the actors had just 48 hours to put the play together and that a prompt would be helping if anyone couldn’t remember their lines (he wasn’t needed).

The play tells the story of two twins, Antipholus of Syracuse and Antipholus of Ephesus, and their slaves, Dromio of Syracuse and Dromio of Ephesus, who are separated in a shipwreck. What follows is a glorious tale of mistaken identities full of bawdy characters, such as the courtesan played by Emma McDonald with her brilliant West Country accent.

All the lines were delivered superbly with an immediacy and raucousness; when Dromio of Syracuse (played by Aaron Tej) describes the maid who has fallen in love with him as being so fat that ‘she is spherical. I could find out countries in her’ the audience roared with laughter.

The toys made frequent appearances throughout the play. Ben Williamson, in his other role as the strong arm of the law, donned a police officer’s hat and as tempers fray a fight breaks out involving water pistols and glittter.

This wasn’t a clipped and polished performance and it was all the better for it. The actors weren’t simply reciting their lines – they were really living them which was really refreshing to see and it created a fantastic carnival-like atmosphere.

This production of The Comedy of Errors will be performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival later this summer.

Walking past a restaurant on Valentine’s Day gazing in at the number of couples sat there awkwardly can make you feel like something of a voyeur. Eavesdropping on a conversation in a café, imagining back stories and making judgements is something we all do but perhaps don’t like to admit.

But in Serenade, a play by the newly formed company 2Magpies Theatre, we are actively encouraged to lurk in the shadows as we watch a young couple having dinner. It’s the idea of ‘legitimising our voyeurism’ the show’s director Matt Wilks tells me.

“The audience are going to sit there, they are going to eat a meal and they are going to watch the actor and actress eating as well,” he said.

Serenade is the Nottingham-based company’s first production: it is a piece of site-responsive theatre which takes place at Antalya Turkish restaurant on 3rd and 4th April.

Serenade stars Ginny Lee and James Pardon as the young couple. There is no script and the actors play themselves (though it should be pointed out that they are not a real couple). The story is based on the actors’ own life stories and they will also react to the real-life situation of being in a restaurant.

Matt says: “The actors play versions of themselves. They know they have got to get from A to B to C and they know the sort of stories they are going to tell to get there but they are encouraged to improvise. When you go to the theatre, you sit down and you know it’s very safe. But there’s an element of danger here and the audience don’t know how much it is improvised.”

Ginny and James did not audition for their roles in the conventional way – in fact, the process sounds like a secret mission devised by Tom and Matt to see whether they would be able to cut it in a play of this kind.

Tom said: “For the first rehearsal we got them to meet at the restaurant. We told James to get there at about ten past seven and Ginny to get there at about half past. We got them to meet at the Corner House and we were sat in the Theatre Royal bar watching them – it was all very manipulative. James turned up and we gave him an envelope – they had no idea what they were going to do. We told him we’d got a table booked for them, here’s some money, go and sit there and wait. People were watching him and he was getting very self-conscious.”

The idea of site-responsive theatre is something that Matt and Tom have already experimented with. In February, they both worked on New Theatre’s production of Paradise, which has also secured a slot at this year’s Fringe.

Tom says: “We did it in a secret location near Queen’s Drive. Under the flyover there are some tunnels. It’s a long, dark tunnel like on the tube – people had no idea where they were going but it went down well. It is the story of a group of strangers on the tube and somebody ends up getting hit by a train. All their stories weave together – their emotions range from being annoyed that their train is delayed to having the responsibility of it happening.”

Sadly, all the tickets for Serenade have now sold out – but Matt and Tom say the launch is only the beginning and they are planning to take the show to other venues and cities in the near future.

With reports that some of our senior politicians were members of the Bullingden Club – the notorious student club which had a reputation for drunken room trashing – it’s not surprising that Laura Wade’s 2010 play Posh has struck a chord with many.

The play, which is being performed by members of Nottingham University’s New Theatre this week, is a searing satire about those who belong to such clubs – in this case the Riot Club – and the consequences of power without responsibility.

Inside the private dining room of a gastro pub, members of the Riot Club have gathered for their annual dinner. They are all wealthy students from Oxford University who are looking forward to a night of drinking and debauchery.

Despite their obnoxiousness the antics of the young men are very funny indeed. They are highly intelligent people and the dialogue is sharp and witty. They poke fun at each other and the quick-fire jokes are endless.

But lurking beneath the surface is something much darker. As the conversation becomes political, Alistair exclaims that he is ‘fed up of poor people’. The boys even feel that they are hard done by because the middle classes supposedly hold all the power and they bemoan the fact that they have to open up their mansions for visitors to look round. Meanwhile, their solution, if they get into trouble, is to throw money at the problem and hope that it goes away. As the night wears on a sort of tribal misogynism is revealed in their dealings with the prostitute and Rachel, who is the daughter of the pub landlord.

Eventually the inevitable happens and the members of the Riot Club trash the dining room – and I mean really trash it. Glasses fly, champagne fizzes, books are ripped and tables are overturned in this spectacular piece of theatre.

A tragic twist causes them to crash back down to reality but despite the ghastly incident there is a feeling that because of their status and who they know, they won’t have to suffer the consequences of their actions.

Overall, this is a fine production by some exceptionally talented students. The actors captured the bullish arrogance of the characters perfectly and managed to provide much hilarity, while also giving us something to think about.

Students from Nottingham University’s many arts societies gathered on Friday evening for a one-off event of dance, art, music, comedy and entertainment.

Along with an exhibition featuring arts and crafts by student artists and members of the community, there were performances from a diverse cross-section of the university’s arts community. Some of the highlights for me was a glorious introduction to improvisational comedy from members of Improv (these guys could give some of the comedians on Radio 4 a run for their money), along with the live music from the very charismatic Cheshire Cat.

The idea behind the event was to link up members of different arts organisations so that they could pool their skills on future productions. It also aimed to raise the profile of the university’s theatre company New Theatre as well as being a fundraiser for its upcoming production of George Orwell’s 1984, which opens on Wednesday.

Organiser and third year student Martha Wilson, from New Theatre, said: “We felt that the theatre can be a bit exclusive so we wanted to introduce people from different arts societies and get them talking to each other. It’s a good meeting point and I’m happy that we have so many people here tonight.”

1984 is directed by Bridie Rollins and it is produced by Martha Wilson. For tickets see the website.

Anyone who discarded an old toy when they were younger, or perhaps neglected to visit an elderly relative, may feel a pang of guilt watching The Hand-Me-Down People, a piece of drama which Nottingham University’s New Theatre will be taking up to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival this week.

The play, written by Adam H. Wells, gives literal meaning to the term ‘on the shelf’. On this dusty shelf is a group of toys which have been discarded by the children in favour of something more exciting. There’s the grotesque-looking but benign Witch and Monster, the slightly spoilt Princess and Doll and the Prince who has had half of his face and arm chewed off by the dog.

For all its sparkling wit, a sadness hangs heavy in the air. Some of the toys are desperate to escape the nothingness of living on the shelf and want to jump down in the hope that the children will start to play with them again. Others are resigned to their fate observing that while their lives are not getting any better, at least they are not getting any worse.

Here are a group of disparate individuals who don’t have anything in common with each other apart from the fact that no-one wants them. There is a real sense of neglect and soul-sapping boredom alluding perhaps to life in a care home. Perhaps most poignantly, the characters all long to be part of stories again. They look to the outside but can’t reach it so instead they have to create their own narratives within the confines of the shelf.

The play, which previewed at Nottingham University on Thursday, is elevated further by the vibrant costumes and the attention to detail in the set design. It is sound tracked by the dainty sound of a music box which plays throughout and which the characters find at once comforting and frustrating. Like Porphyria, this production showcases the talents of everyone involved and I wish everyone all the best for the Fringe.

You can see The Hand-Me-Down People at C Nova, India Buildings, Victoria Street, Edinburgh between 2nd and 27th August. For details see the website.

Suffocating domesticity turns into something altogether more macabre in Porphyria, a new play written by emerging talent Craig Wilmann and performed by members of Nottingham University’s New Theatre.

Robert Browning’s 1836 poem Porphyria’s Lover forms the basis of this gripping psychological drama which previewed at the university on Wednesday ahead its run at next month’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

The play opens with Reginald Blake and his wife, who incidentally has no name, squabbling over a game of Scrabble. It is a petty argument but one that belies deeper problems in their relationship. Despite this, Reginald assures the audience that he would never be unfaithful to his wife – except that is in his dreams when he dances with a beautiful blonde-haired woman.

But Reginald was not expecting this woman to emerge from his fantasies and be sitting at the breakfast table in the form of his son’s au pair.

What follows is a darkly comic and surreal tale of infidelity, madness and murder. The play moves deftly from the mundane to poetic, perhaps seen most poignantly in Reginald’s estrangement from his son Nicholas. We see love at its most selfish and destructive and by using a range of neat dramatic devices – such as the two women speaking over the top of each other – the distinction between past and present breaks down. There is also a sense in which dreams and reality become indistinguishable, trapping our protagonist in his own perpetual torment.

The three cast members, Nick Jeffrey (Reginald), Liz Stevens (Wife) and Genevieve Cunnell (Dream Woman) played their parts brilliantly. Jeffrey was wholly believable in his role of the beleaguered everyman. He comes across as wide-eyed and innocent, almost child-like, but at the same time, he is also obsessive, selfish and menacing. Meanwhile, the fact that the two women are not given names does not detract from the complexity of their characters and the rich emotions they convey.

New Theatre will be representing the university and the city of Nottingham at this year’s Fringe – it thoroughly deserves to be a success. You can see Porphyria at Zoo Southside, 117 Nicolson Street, Edinburgh between 6th and 20th August. For details click here.